I found everything very inspirational and some key ideas discussed were: open-source, commons, the relation with others online but, more important, offline, the just do it atitude together with the diy, “small” changes, urban spaces, accessibility, and back to craft, this slow way of life, with much more quality.

I was very happy to hear from Justin, from Stadtgarten and Mundraub, that he had never gardening before the project : ) Well, I still have chances. Also liked when Sarah Corbett, from Craftivist Collective said that she always wondered what to do, how to help, while being so introverted (although I muss say she was speaking pretty confident there). It was very interesting to see some of the history behind Craftivism (craft +activism), when she showed a picture made by women during Pinochet´s dictatorship (which reminded me the documentary Nostalgia de la Luz).

At the end, there were some delicious food and drinks, and I got to know, through a guy who was wearing a t-shirt with “hack human kindness”* (I guess it was it) about an event, also held at Betahaus, called Random Hacks of Kindness, which is “a global community of innovators building practical open technology to make the world a better place”. Cool! The next one will take place on June 2nd, at Betahaus and you can register here.

“You have had a Missed Connection.

And there is a whole world of people just like you, and a venue in which you and these other lost souls can collect these moments like rosary beads, communing over these simple pleas for the possibility of closeness.

The concept of a Missed Connection has its beginnings in the places where such moments often happen: public space. Bulletin boards, street posts, and other public platforms were once used to seek out these missed connections.

…

The Center for Missed Connections (CMC) began as a project simply to identify where the most missed connections happen in a given city. New York City is home to the pilot program, chosen for its high traffic and for the propensity of posters to include specific cross-streets or location information. Since then, the analysis has developed a thorough taxonomy of the Missed Connection and a method for identifying whether one has, in fact, had a Missed Connection. The CMC seeks to understand the longing, both poetic and banal, within public spaces”.

” Charlie Burns is 95 years old. He can be seen sitting in his car on Bacon Street watching the world go by pretty much every day. He has been here since 1915 and has never left. their business is very much a family run business and is still here today, run by his daughter Carol. He is a very well known and respected man in the area, having spent time with the likes of the Kray twins, Libererace… …and Judy Garland during his time as president of The Repton Boxing Club, aswell as running The Bethnal Green Mens Club. He even had a private audience with the Pope due to all the charity work he done in the area”.